Chapter 54

After autumn set in, the weather in the city turned noticeably cooler.

The candid behind-the-scenes photos from the later episodes of the variety show also started leaking online, bringing a great deal of traffic to the show’s upcoming broadcast.

Early that morning, Jiang Lai was woken by the cold.

She pulled the blanket tighter around herself and mumbled sleepily, “Mom, why did the room suddenly get so cold…”

Zhao Dan hurried over at the sound, still wearing an apron as she quickly went to close the window she’d left open the night before.

“Didn’t I tell you before you went to sleep last night that it was going to get colder today and to close the window? Why didn’t you listen?”

“Ah… I didn’t listen, I didn’t listen. Mom’s reciting scripture.”

Seeing her daughter like that, Zhao Dan could only give her a helpless smack on the butt. “You—you’re practically old enough to get married, and you’re still this unserious?”

At that, Jiang Lai tugged the blanket down a little and said teasingly, “Mom, I’ll marry Cheng Shuyang back home, and the two of us can be your daughters together. What do you think?”

“That would be lovely, but… do you have that kind of ability?”

“Then don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it myself.”

“Fine. Whoever you want to marry, or whoever you want to be married to, I don’t have any objections.”

Zhao Dan teased her with a smile, then suddenly seemed to think of something and her expression changed. “Oh no, my soup!”

After Zhao Dan left, Jiang Lai lay back down under the covers. Her sleepiness was already gone. She rolled over, picked up her phone, and started scrolling through the trending topics.

“#JiangLaiAndChengShuyangHaveAmazingChemistry”

“#JiangLaiSuccessfullyPursuedHerIdol”

In a very good mood, she tapped into the already exploding comments section. The two of them even had a super topic.

“OMG, what is this script of an older sister raising a clingy little wolfdog? I’m shipping them first. Anyone who can ship should hand them a script, okay!”

“Help, Teacher Cheng’s gaze at Jiang Lai is way too doting…”

Someone had even tallied the number of times over the past few episodes that Jiang Lai had trailed behind the woman, with the caption: “Large dog clingy-dog daily life.”

Fortunately, after scrolling a bit more, she saw that most people were still very accepting of the two of them, and there weren’t any especially nasty comments. That was good. She didn’t want to cause any trouble for Cheng Shuyang’s life.

She casually clicked on the most-viewed topic and opened it. When she saw the poster’s name, she suddenly froze.

Xiaodeyingman…

Why did that name sound so familiar? It felt like she had seen it somewhere before.

Xiaoman!

Right. That made everything make sense.

She opened her chat with the girl and tapped her.

The girl replied very quickly, sending a sticker.

“Is this person you?”

She took a screenshot and sent it to Xiaoman.

The next second, Xiaoman’s video call came through.

“Sis Alai, you’re so smart!”

“Please, your name was way too easy to guess, okay?”

“Hehe.”

Xiaoman laughed twice, and the camera shook with her.

Jiang Lai noticed the scene behind her. “You’re not at home?”

“Nope, I’m accompanying Teacher Cheng on set!”

Xiaoman winked at her. “Sister Alai, wait for me a sec.”

The camera suddenly swung toward the woman filming nearby. It was clearly still the same face, but Jiang Lai felt that at this moment, the woman had a kind of fatal attraction to her.

“Pretty, right?”

The camera flipped back. Xiaoman wore a mischievous grin. “Sister Alai, don’t worry. I’ll take good care of Aunt Cheng and definitely won’t let anyone else get a chance.”

“Okay, I trust you.”

“Xiaoman.”

Faintly, Jiang Lai seemed to hear the woman calling her.

“I’m here.”

The girl answered and then gave her an apologetic smile. “Sister Alai, I should get back to work now?”

“Okay, go ahead.”

After hanging up, Xiaoman bounced back over to the woman. “Aunt Cheng, you called me?”

The woman gave her a strange look. “Who were you talking to just now?”

“No one, just a friend.”

Xiaoman shook her arm. “Aunt Cheng, I also need privacy…”

“Fine, fine, I won’t ask anymore. Is that enough?”

As they spoke, there was a bit of commotion at the entrance.

Cheng Shuyang stood up and went over.

“Hello, Teacher Cheng.”

The girl who saw Cheng Shuyang was smiling, both pleased and flustered.

“Hello.”

Cheng Shuyang extended a hand to shake the tips of her fingers. A perfectly measured smile touched her lips, and her voice was gentle, carrying the warmth of a senior toward a junior. “I’ve heard your name for a long time. I’m really looking forward to this collaboration.”

The girl could barely contain her excitement; her eyes were bright with joy. “I should be the one saying that. I’m so honored to be acting with you, Teacher Cheng. If there’s anything I’m lacking, I’ll have to ask you to guide me more.”

“Don’t talk about guiding or not guiding. We can just learn from each other.”

Cheng Shuyang let go of her hand. “So, could you give me an autograph?”

“Mm, huh?!”

Not only Xiaoman, even the girl opposite her was a little baffled by Cheng Shuyang’s move.

“Y-you want my autograph?”

The girl pointed at herself uncertainly.

Seeing the misunderstanding, the woman smiled and explained, “There’s a little one at my place who’s been really into the drama you starred in lately. Since I happened to have the chance, I was wondering if it would be too much trouble for you to help me get one for her.”

The girl was first stunned, then broke into a delighted smile. “If Teacher Cheng herself is asking, how could it be trouble?”

She took the paper and pen from her assistant. “What should I write?”

“Mm, just write ‘eat well and behave yourself.’ She usually hates hearing things like that.”

“So she’s still young, then; she doesn’t like being lectured.”

Smiling, the girl handed the signed photo to the woman.

The woman accepted it, a sly smile flashing in her eyes. “Mm, she dislikes it most when I tell her off.”

After the crowd dispersed, Xiaoman still looked a little lost. “Aunt Cheng, who did you get the signed photo for?”

“You and Alai get along so well; you don’t know who she’s been liking lately?”

Xiaoman scratched her head. “I only know she likes you.”

“…Nonsense.”

“So… this signed photo was something you specially got for Sister Alai, right?”

“Not specially. I just happened to think of it.”

The woman lowered her head to look at the script, not realizing that her reddened ears had already betrayed her. Xiaoman didn’t expose her either. Asking the girl to sign the words “behave yourself” was clearly tailored to Jiang Lai’s personality.

“You can hold onto it for her. Remember to give it to her the next time you film the variety show.”

Xiaoman shook her head and took a step back. “Something like this should be handed to Sister Alai by you personally to make your feelings count. Besides, if Sister Alai knew you specially got it for her, she’d be ridiculously happy.”

The woman glanced up and shot her a look, though there was no real threat in it. “Talking nonsense again.”

Though she said that, the woman still took the photo back and tucked it into the book she often read.

Seeing her movements, Xiaoman barely held back her smile. Fine; those two were clearly in mutual pursuit.

“Oh, there’s one more question.”

“What?”

“There was a trending topic about you this morning. Do you want me to contact PR?”

“Contact PR for what?”

“I mean the public relations team. You and Sister Alai are on the trending list. If you want to take it down now, it’s still in time. Didn’t you usually dislike this kind of promotion…”

“No need.”

The woman stood up and straightened her costume. “Alai and I are just working together normally. There’s nothing shameful about it.”

“Then just leave it up normally?” Xiaoman asked carefully.

The woman said nothing; she simply picked up the script and flipped through two pages before speaking softly. “If there are any bad comments, just pretend you never saw them. And if there aren’t any, wouldn’t that be even better?”

“Mainly I’m afraid you’ll get annoyed seeing it.”

“I won’t.”

Cheng Shuyang’s gaze fell on the signed photo, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly. “Let it be.”

————————

By nearly noon, Jiang Lai had finally managed to drag herself out of bed and shuffled out of the bedroom while yawning all the way.

Zhao Dan had already prepared lunch.

Jiang Lai flopped onto the sofa like a boneless heap, with Jiang Xiao sitting underneath her.

“Come eat.”

“You and Xiaoxiao eat first. I don’t feel like eating.”

“Is your competition piece ready? Don’t get nervous at the last minute and lose your footing.”

Jiang Lai pinched Jiang Xiao’s soft cheek. “I’ve already got a rough draft. After I polish it a bit more, it should be about done.”

“You still need to be careful with everything.”

“Got it, got it.”

Zhao Dan was still a little worried, looking anxiously at the girl as she played with Jiang Xiao.

“Fine, I’ll be careful myself.”

After lunch, Jiang Lai accompanied Zhao Dan for a walk in the neighborhood. There were a lot of people there, and when they saw the mother and daughter come out, they all found it novel. Jiang Lai was, after all, half in the entertainment circle, and many people knew her.

Naturally, there was a round of greetings. After praising Jiang Lai for being capable, the topic moved on to other things, like how much some family’s daughter was earning, or how a son had been promoted, and so on.

Jiang Lai didn’t like hearing those things, so she could only quietly tug on Zhao Dan’s sleeve.

A mother knows her daughter best; Zhao Dan only needed one glance to understand what she meant.

“There’s a playground over there. Take Xiaoxiao to play,” the woman said softly.

“Okay.”

Jiang Lai, as if relieved of a heavy burden, scooped up Jiang Xiao and fled the center of gossip.

“Xiaoxiao, sis will take you out to play!”

“Xiao Zhao, your Alai’s already not so young, right?”

“Mm, she’ll be twenty-five after the New Year.”

“She should be getting married!”

The smile on Zhao Dan’s face faded a little. “That depends on Alai’s wishes. If she doesn’t want to marry, I’m not going to rush her with her father either.”

“I’m telling you, I know a really outstanding boy over here. Want to introduce him to Alai?”

“No need. Alai has her own plans.”

“That’s where you’re wrong…”

The person was still going to say something, but Zhao Dan had already stood up. “You all keep chatting. There’s something at home, so I’ll head back first.”

After they got home, Zhao Dan treated the whole thing as a funny story and told Jiang Lai about it. Jiang Lai nearly rolled her eyes to the ceiling after hearing it.

When she got back to her room, she immediately sent the woman a crying sticker.

As expected, the woman replied very quickly.

“What’s wrong? Are you unhappy?”

So Jiang Lai recounted everything that had happened in the afternoon to the woman, word for word. After she finished, she still felt a little indignant.

“Teacher Cheng, don’t you think they’re too much? I’m not getting married or marrying anyone; I’m not bothering them at all. Why do they keep staring at me?”

The woman chuckled softly, which only made Jiang Lai feel more wronged.

“Why are you laughing at me too? I was already very upset.”

The woman suppressed her smile and comforted her gently. “Alai, other people’s mouths are on their own faces. How can you control them and stop them from speaking? Besides, you’re so outstanding; you deserve someone better to accompany you.”

“But why do they keep saying things about me…”

“Alai, you have to know that people always pick at other people’s lives, as if that somehow makes their own life look better. If you’re really upset because of that, then you’re just giving them exactly what they want.”

“Teacher Cheng…”

“Alright, it’s already very late. You should go to sleep.”

“Then… good night, Teacher Cheng.”

“Good night.”

The woman put away her phone and looked into the distance.

“Xiaoman.”

“What is it, Aunt Cheng?”

She opened her mouth, but in the end, said nothing. “Never mind.”

Some things didn’t need to be said by her. She believed the girl would understand.